This book explores the metaphysics of political communities. It discusses how and why a plurality of individuals becomes a political unity, what principles or forces keep that unity together, and what threats that unity can be faced with.

Gabriele De Anna teaches philosophy at the Universities of Udine, Italy, and Bamberg, Germany. He was Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Cambridge (UK) and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Philosophy of Science (Pittsburgh University, USA). He authored six books in Italian, edited eleven volumes (including Evolutionary Ethics and Contemporary Biology), and published over seventy articles and chapters on metaphysics, action theory political philosophy.

Introduction. Metaphysics and Politics

Part I: Substance

1. Direct Realism and Substances

2. Degrees of Unity and Substance Gradualism

Part II: Practical Reason

3. Human Action, Reasons, and the Good

4. Reasons for Action, Human Nature and Morality

5. Practical Reason and the Problem of Fit

Part III: Authority

6. Human Action, the Political Community and the Common Good

7. Authority and the Unity of the Political Community